Minnesota · Nonprofit
THEATER MU INCORPORATED
THEATER MU INCORPORATED (Minnesota) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,334,618 to it, the largest being THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION ($678,050). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $884k
- Funders on record
- 36
- Grants received
- $4.3M
- Net assets
- $769k
What Theater Mu Incorporated does
Mission
Theater mu produces great performances born of arts, equity, and justice from the heart of the asian american experience.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
As the largest asian american theater in the midwest, theater mu has been providing programs in mainstage, education, artist development, and community events since 1992. Theater mu's 2024-25 season was the final season programmed by former artistic director, lily tung crystal. The season continues ms. Tung crystal's vision of "widening circles" of asian american representation by programming a season of productions featuring south asian and queer stories. The season opened with a newly reformatted new eyes festival where the company opened up the submission process to playwrights nation-wide for the first time since 2011. This was followed by the world premiere of ankita raturi's fifty boxes of earth about a nonbinary immigrant's journey to a new land and the suspicion from the existing residents of the community garden with the arrival of the foreigner. Mu produced an updated production of diana son's glaas and obie award winning play stop kiss to critic and audience acclaim. The themes of ms. Son's play ringing true today as much as it did in it's premiere in 1998. Theater mu's production being the first time the majority of the roles cast with asian american actors. The season…
$955,932 spent$111,282 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $955,932.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $630k to $1.3M (+99%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 9% · 2018 10% · 2019 21% · 2020 6% · 2021 13% · 2022 8% · 2023 4% · 2024 37% · 2025 14%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
84% of THEATER MU INCORPORATED’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Board chair
Ruthie Johnson
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 18 funders, grant income rose $84k → $1.1M.
10 of 36 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 27% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of THEATER MU INCORPORATED’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 36 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
THEATER MU INCORPORATED has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
39% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund THEATER MU INCORPORATED.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 25% · 2019 44% · 2020 28% · 2021 27% · 2022 58% · 2023 37% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
67% of THEATER MU INCORPORATED's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
THEATER MU INCORPORATED draws 51% of its grant income from funders outside Minnesota, across 7 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
THEATER MU INCORPORATED has grown faster than half of the 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding THEATER MU INCORPORATED receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $130k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$130k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like THEATER MU INCORPORATED
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
69% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
70%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THEATER MU INCORPORATED: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds THEATER MU INCORPORATED?
- THEATER MU INCORPORATED (Minnesota) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,334,618 to it, the largest being THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION ($678,050). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THEATER MU INCORPORATED have?
- IRS filings report 36 organizations giving $4,334,618 in grants to THEATER MU INCORPORATED, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THEATER MU INCORPORATED?
- THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $678,050 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THEATER MU INCORPORATED find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Theater Mu →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 36 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing